I'm O2 pay monthly and have just been charged £3 for a service called "watch it". I did not subscribe to any such service. O2 say it's nothing to do with them and have told me to call 3308085223 which is a number in France and supposedly the contact number for the company that runs the service.

I googled the number and found the following:

Terms of use - Watch It - Watch Your Replay and Programs Online

https://www.watch-it.tv/gb/terms

e-mail, [email protected]. mail, ALCHIMIE Service Client BP 60270 AUBERVILLIERS 93534 LA PLAINE SAINT DENIS CEDEX FRANCE. phone*, +44-3308085223. unsubscription Text Command, Send STOP by SMS to 62442 (message free of charge. unsubscription info, http://www.watch-it.tv/unsubscribe ...

I'm worried about calling that number or sending any texts in case it's a [problem] and I get charged even more. Also I don't really want to confirm my number as a live number so they can send me more scams.

O2 have reversed the charge this month but told me I might get charged again and it's down to me to call the company and stop the charges. Any thoughts on how to proceed?

There was something about this on the news just a few days ago. Maybe not this particular service but this kind of activity.

As you can imagine, the mobile phone providers are saying that that has nothing to do with them – but you can bet your bottom dollar that they are getting some money out of it. Therefore I would be looking to proceed against them. I would need to know more about it to understand exactly on what basis to go ahead – but they can't wash their hands when they are picking up a percentage.

I certainly wouldn't be phoning France or any other number. Are you paying this against a direct debit? Or a debit card? I would start invoking the direct debit guarantee that portion of the money or I would start invoking a chargeback. Don't forget, that O2 will then treat you are some kind of pariah. I think in the short term the thing to do is to put in a formal complaint and tell them that you want it taken to the communication ombudsman. Make sure in your complaint you make it clear that O2 is not in a position to wash their hands when they are facilitating the unauthorised payment and they are taking a percentage. I think that these are absolutely essential elements of your complaint.

Thanks. I decided to send an email asking them to cancel the subscription and reverse any charges. I'll see what comes back.

I got an email back saying subscription is cancelled so we'll see what happens.

I also found two text messages in my spam folder.

One was the original text confirming the subscription

- which I completely missed and a second confirming the subscription is cancelled which arrived just after their reply to my email.

I went on to ask how I got subscribed in the first place and they said my subscription came via YouTube and that I must have clicked on one of their ads.

Very dodgy if you ask me. Particularly as sometimes you can inadvertently click on an ad and open it whilst using your finger to scroll on your smart phone.

I'll be much more careful where I click in future.

Hopefully all sorted now but still annoyed I've had to take time out of my day and kick up a stink both with O2 and the service provider over something I never asked for. How many don't see this and just end paying?

Edit:

I'm also confused how they managed to get my mobile number to send me the text as I didn't knowingly enter it into any web page.

I think the phone must be passing this to the web browser without my knowledge at the time of clicking the ad.

Or can they get my mobile number from O2 if I was surfing 4G at the time?

I wonder how many people know about this and if it can be switched off.

I'm on Android.

now you know why I wont have a so called smart phone, instagram, goolgeplus or anything like it.

Well I asked "watch it" how they got my mobile number and they said they had no idea so I should ask O2! Not sure I can be bothered banging my head against a brick wall with O2 but would quite like to follow this up and get an answer.

then tell O2 that. Also tell them that you wouild wish they fully investigate and explain how this happened, not in general terms but specifically this case. Also check your settings and disallow all third party permissions

I just received a signup receipt for this service also, I have not signed up for this and my phone is on TPS.

I called o2 and reported it as such, they had charged me £4.50 - refunded by o2 then the customer service op unsubscribed me and put a block on direct to mobile charges.

Dear T1grm,

*

Thank you for taking time to write this comment and express your concerns.

We apologise if our service Watch It did not meet your expectations and appreciate you taking time to share your troubles

Following your recent comment we would like to provide you with a better understanding of Watch it!

*

Watch it! is an application and a website for video lovers available on iOs, Android, Android TV and web browsers.

Users can access VOD and live Channels through mini-bundles that suit their passion.

Weekly subscription service gives access to the best TV channels, directly added to the mobile phone bill.

*

To clarify your journey, you have clicked on an advertising displaying Watch it! and you have been redirected to a payment page where a button “Join” was displayed.

As soon as you validated your subscription on this first page, you have been redirected to a second page and you clicked on “Continue” button.

Once you authorised the payment by pressing “Continue”, a payment request went directly to your mobile operator for validation.

*

After you complete your purchase, the following SMS was sent to confirm the subscription.

"FreeMsg:Watch live TV! Ur free trial of Watch It On TV will end on 26/6/18 14:09 then £3.00/wk until u text stop to 62442. Help?03308085223 (number not surcharged)."

*

We hope this clarifies the nature of the service.

*

If you need further explanation, we invite you to contact our customer service by phone +44-3308085223. Please make sure that your concerns will be handled as soon as possible.

*

Watch it! Customer Service

not necessarily so, there are big problems with giffgaff and EE that allow YOU to randomly send unsolicited charged for texts. hy dont you just do the decent thing or will that destroy your business model

Hello,

I just wanted to share my experience with these Premium Service companies and O2.

To begin with I need to clarify that I DID NOT (either accidentally or otherwise) sign up to any of these services.

I recently noticed from my phone bill that there were lots of additional charges on a phone which I rarely use. These charges were from the following companies; Cellfish Media, Mobiclix Group Pte, "My Mobile Company" ,Snack Games, UME Ltd and Watch it.

These charges ranged from £2.99 to £9.99 and totaled £150 over a 2 month period.

I contacted O2 my provider and asked them about the charges. They told me that the charges were nothing to do with O2 and I would have to contact the companies in question directly. They assured me that if I contacted the companies they would give me a full refund. (Interesting I see that other people are saying that O2 refunded the charges - O2 told me they could not do this.) O2 also assured me that they do not make any money from these transactions or third parties. In fact they said that O2 pays a fee to the third party companies (which makes no sense to me at all).

I contacted each of the companies in question and, after 2 or 3 emails in some cases, all but one company gave me a full refund. The 1 company who did not was "Mobiclix" aka mocoplay.com. They had charged me £9.99 twice and in an email agreed to refund my the full amount, I then provided them with my paypal details for the refund. . A few days later I checked my paypal account to see that only 9.99 had been refunded. I contacted that company again and was told that they changed their minds and were only going to refund me 9.99 in total. I told the company that I would be taking the matter further and asked them to provide Proof of Debt - showing that I had given permission for them to charge me.

I contacted O2 again and asked them for the full company details of this 3rd party Mobiclix. They have refused to provide it.

Some questions I would have;

1. How can these companies legally apply these charges without the customer's consent?

2. How can O2 (and other providers) be allowed to let these 3rd party companies apply charges to my O2 account without my explicit consent?

3. How can O2 simply wash their hands of the issue and not take responsibility?

4. What action can be taken against these 3rd party companies and O2?

Paul

as you have a paypal payment email frok them it shoudl be possible to dig deeper into who and where they are via that. Now as the monetyy has presumably coem from your bank account then you go to the bank and do a payment reversal/recharge and tell the bank that the payment was unauthorided and via a 3rd party (O2) and nowt to do with you.

As saidWatchitTV do autoenrol peopel without their knowledge on various platforms despite what their rep says here. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to work out if it is possible with EE then it would be possible with O2, let them prove otherwise by providing a full list fo the data they hold and anything that doesnt match your records (SAR O2 for a full list of all calls texts etc) is clearly not of your doing.

On 5/11/2018 at 11:27 AM, t1grm said:

Well I asked "watch it" how they got my mobile number and they said they had no idea so I should ask O2! Not sure I can be bothered banging my head against a brick wall with O2 but would quite like to follow this up and get an answer.

If watch-it are making money out of this then their attitude that they have no idea how they managed to get hold of your personal data is completely unacceptable. Mind you, they are in France and I can tell you from first-hand experience that the traffic in personal data in France seems to be completely unregulated (officially, it is) and many people receive more than a dozen cold calls every day from people who have details such as your name, your age, whether you are retired – et cetera.

Although of course the French including Alchimie , whose address is at  

 are subject to data protection rules – as all EU companies are, there seems to be a general disregard of them. I'm not referring to  Alchimie here.

Although there are subject access request rights in France, I'm not aware that anyone is particular familiar with those rights and I certainly don't know anyone in France who has made an SAR request of a French company.

Maybe you should try it of Alchimie.  I'll bet you they haven't had many SARs in their lifetime.

If you email  [email protected], she may be pleased to tell you the name of their Data Controller.

Especially since GDPR – I would have thought that having no idea where the personal data comes from which they hold on you would be a complete nonstarter. It suggests immediately that they have your personal data without permission.